Mission: Icarus
by Paranoise
Summary: Quinn is your not-so-typical half Asgardian, half human teenager. All she wants to do in life is fly, learn magic, and stop getting shot at by the cops. So why can't she just catch a break? No pairings, cuz I suck at them Warning: Attempted rape, mild violence
1. Chapter 1

If you had been a passenger on Southwest airlines commercial flight #567584, the sudden swerve of the airplane may or may not have caused your stomach to drop, and you may have been one of the several people who let out annoyingly high pitched screams. A startled shout probably would have had you rushing over to the emergency exit, trying to see why everyone had suddenly crowded around the window. If you had been lucky enough to get a glimpse of the planes exterior, you probably would have been shocked to see a tall teenage girl, with light brown skin, and uniquely curly hair, calmly sitting on the wing of the plane reading what appeared to be a map. You would have been even more surprised when she suddenly looked up at the plane, saw the passengers crowded at the windows, smiled, waved, and then leapt off the flying machine, making several people cry out in terror. And finally, there is absolutely no doubt that you, along with everyone else in the plane, would have fainted dead away as you caught sight of what looked like an enormous, black bird swooped up and above the clouds, grinning at the look on your face.

This "bird" was actually 15 year old Quinn Sigyndaughter, on her way to New York City. She had merely stopped to rest on the plane, and pulled out the map to make sure she was on the right trail, before quickly realizing it wasn't much help as she couldn't see the road signs, and discarded it into the air when she jumped off. The air pushed against her as she fell, and she positioned herself into a perfect dive, before suddenly arching her back as two huge wings, black as night, appeared out of her back, and the wind picked her up. She grinned as she flew up higher with every beat of her wings, until she was completely concealed by clouds. Suddenly, she folded the wings against her body, and fell backwards, spiraling towards the earth at an alarming rate. In minutes she was just a few feet above the ground, and let out a scream of exhilaration as she spread her wings, used them to stop herself from the deadly impact. She landed softly on the cool, grassy ground beneath her, and flopped back to gaze at the sky for a while.

"Neat trick," the sudden voice made her jump, and she leapt up in a fighting stance, ready to take on whoever spoke. "No, no! It's okay! I'm not here to hurt you." She managed to pinpoint the location of the noise: just behind her, a little to the left. A well-aimed round house kick would be enough to take whoever it was out. Still, she reasoned, she had not come to this world to fight, but to tie up some loose ends. She relaxed her stance, but made sure to be ready to fly off at a moment's notice. Slowly, she turned around to face the voice's source. It was a male, probably in his late teens or early twenties. He was a few inches shorter than her, and sporting a dopey grin that made her wonder whether he was particularly bright.

"I'm an intern at the base over there," he was saying. She nodded, even though she had no idea what an intern was, or what base he was talking about. "Do you think you could come back there with me? I think they'd be really interested to see someone like you." Quinn weighed her options in her head; she could go with this human gods know where, or she could continue flying aimlessly until she found what she was looking for, which admittedly, was taking a lot longer than expected. She finally nodded, and allowed herself to be led off into the trees, while the "intern" continued to chat away happily. After a short walk, they came across a rather large, old looking building, and Quinn found herself wondering what kind of base could possibly be in there. Still, she accepted that humans had strange ways, and continued further into the building, until at last they were on the roof, and Quinn was beginning to suspect something was up. The man was turned around now, facing her so that she could see his entire face. She was now noticing that he was a lot older than she had initially thought, and the supposed dopey grin he was wearing was not actually that dopey, and instead a bit frightening.

"Well here we are," he was saying. "Home sweet home!" Quinn started backing away from the man, preparing to jump off the building when he caught her arm.

"Hey," the man's face was alarmingly close to her own now, and she squirmed as she realized that his breath stank of alcohol, "There's no need to leave yet. You only just got here." With that he pressed himself up against her, and instinctively, she let out a scream.

A wave of pain suddenly overtook her right cheek and she blinked a few times before realizing what had happened: he must have just slapped her. "Shh!" He shushed her in a slightly panicked fashion, "It's okay! Remember, I said I won't hurt you! Just trust me, okay!" Again she screamed, this time louder, hoping that maybe someone would hear her. He forced his hand over her mouth, effectively muffling her cries. "Shut up!" he hissed. As he gazed around frantically, Quinn was busily running through a list of animals in her head, trying to think of an animal that wasn't particularly harmful but scared people. _A snake, _she thought with finality. The man was too busy making sure no one had heard her to notice her eyes suddenly change colors from a dark brown to the eerie yellow of a glowing lantern, and her skin began to pick up a scaly pattern along her arms. Finally the man turned back to her saying, "Alright now where were we?" Quinn cursed under her breath as he held her arm tighter, the pain effectively breaking her concentration, and her eyes and skin reverted back to their original state. She began struggling again, though she knew it was a useless task. The man merely laughed before shoving her to the floor, trapping her hands above her head and straddling her waist.

"Relax and enjoy," he laughed as her eyes widened in horror as he brought their faces closer and closer together until-

"Argh!" the man let out a yell as something yanked him off of Quinn, who stayed on the ground, frozen in shock. Her mouth dropped open as she took in what she was seeing: a large metal man, red and gold save for a blue circle on his chest had picked her attacker up, was holding him in the air by his collar, and said smoothly, "It may not be any of my business, but unless Opposite Day became a legitimate holiday while I was away, that was not particularly gentlemanly." The man simply spluttered, and made odd incomprehensible sounds for a few minutes, before the metal man sighed and said, "Y'know, I consider myself to be a pretty laid back guy. But if there is one thing I can't stand, it's scum like you hurting innocent people." The man simply nodded furiously as if he couldn't agree more, and could he just be let go now please, because he'd never do it again. Without warning, the metal man dropped the man onto the ground and said, "Now leave, before I lose my temper." The man didn't have to be told twice, and rushed back off the roof as if there was a fire. Now the metal man turned to Quinn.

"Are you okay?" he asked leaning down next to her, and his helmet opened up to reveal a normal, non-metal human inside. Quinn stared at him a few moments before snapping into action. She leapt up, ran for the edge of the roof, and had almost leapt off before the metal man had grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"Calm down!" she heard him say, but before it clearly registered in her mind, she had whipped around, and punched him full force in the nose. The man let out a grunt of pain, and his grip on her wrist tightened for a few seconds. She let out a small shriek as she felt a snap, which surprised him into letting go. She didn't waste time with theatrics this time, instead opting to just unfold her wings and take off in that very spot. Much to her dismay, it seemed the metal man could fly as well, though by less traditional methods. He flew after her for about ten minutes, before in hopes of losing him she dropped to the ground with the same trick she'd used earlier, and landed in a tree.

The metal man landed mere moments after and looked around the ground for a few moments before moving to the tree. He flew up, scoped the area for a few moments, and finally flew back up into the air and out of sight. A squirrel in said tree let out a breath of relief, and promptly began to grow larger and lose its fur. Quinn shook of the last bits of hair left from her squirrel form, and wiped a few tears off her face that had fallen when her wrist broke. A voice suddenly yelled something nondescript, and she spared a glance in the direction it came from, and then flew up. She was only a few feet off the ground when she heard, "Quinn!"

She stopped and looked around, half-expecting a talking deer or something along those lines. "In the pond!" Hesitating only a moment, she walked over to a pond she had only just noticed there, and did a double take when she peered into it's depths. Appearing where her own reflection should have been was the face of a pale man, with shoulder length black hair and emerald green eyes, looking worried.

"Loki?" she said incredulously and he nodded shortly before speaking. "Quinn, are you alright? I glanced upon you a few minutes ago, and saw you being attacked by that metal being. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, don't worry about it. He just helped me out of a sticky situation, and wanted to make sure I wasn't suicidal."

"What would have possibly made him think that?" And so Quinn gave a brief summary of what had happened on her brief time on earth so far, at the end of which Loki was seething. "Damn that foolish human," he hissed, "If I ever lay eyes upon him, I swear he will not see the light of another day." His gaze dropped to the injured wrist she was cradling in her other hand.

"You _are_ hurt," he frowned. "Wait a moment."

"What-?" Quinn started, but he had already disappeared. Quinn's head whipped around as she heard branches snap to her right, and she prepared to fly away when she heard the cool voice that had been coming from the pond moments ago.

"Calm yourself," Loki said as he emerged from the trees. Quinn grinned and walked over to him. "How did you do that?" she questioned.

Loki merely rolled his eyes and replied, "Magic." Quinn nodded, and winced as Loki took her injured wrist. "This will hurt a bit," he said in an apologetic tone. Quinn bit her lip, but merely nodded once more. She let out a small gasp of pain as a green light surrounded her wrist, and a lone tear escaped her eyes and raced down her cheek. The green light began to fade, and finally went out altogether. Quinn sighed in relief before looking back up at the older man and saying, "Thanks."

Loki merely nodded. "I must return now," he said, "Someone may notice my absence." Quinn looked a bit disappointed, but nodded and walked up to him, wrapping him in a hug, which was returned awkwardly. "I'll miss you!" Quinn said.

"Well, then, hurry up and finish so you can return home," Loki quipped.

"I'm taking that as, 'I'll miss you too, Quinn. Be safe,'" Quinn grinned. Loki smiled just barely before walking back off into the trees, and, as far as Quinn could guess, vanishing. She unfolded her wings and flew off again, this time in the direction of a large group of lights that were clearly visible now that the sun had completely set. She coasted down to the highway once, to see a sign that read, New York City, 10 miles away. She grinned and sped up her wing beats, speeding along until she had landed on top of a building with many windows and doors, and sat down, not bothering to tuck her wings in, thinking they'd be invisible in the night. She thought once she may have heard someone scream but the only person in her sight was a human talking frantically into a small black box. Minutes later, a black and white box on wheels rolled by, flashing red and blue, and she watched with interest as a man in a blue uniform climbed out. The person with the talk box and the person from the rolling box started talking, and Quinn was so intent at hearing what they were saying, she didn't notice as they began pointing at her. The man in blue pulled out his own talking box, and soon more rolling boxes had arrived. They began to approach the building, and it wasn't until they pointed small black things at her and they ordered her to come down slowly that she realized what happened.

The talking box must have been some form of a communicator, and the woman had called the local law enforcement. She sighed, spread her wings and prepared to leap down, when pain erupted in one of her wings, and she cried out in pain. One of the small black things was smoking slightly, and a few men in blue were yelling at the one holding the smoking device.

"You don't just shoot at a possible extraterrestrial!" she hear them yelling, but all she could really concentrate on was the puncture in her wing, bleeding freely, that felt like it was burning. She leapt up into the sky, and began to flap off when another hole ripped through the other wing, and then another and another. She let out a cry, and flapped harder, speeding herself up in hopes to get away from the shooting devices.

"Hold your fire!" she heard someone yell, while another said, "Jesus Christ, it's a kid!" She kept going until she could no longer see the building she had been shot at on, and landed on another building, even taller than the last that proclaimed, Stark Industries, in big bold letters. She hoped to rest on the building's roof, and so she laid down, resting for a moment, before she heard a short gasp and opened her eyes realizing she was not alone up here. She looked around, her eyes having adapted to the night surroundings, and saw the face of the metal man she had escaped from mere hours ago. They stared at each other for a few moments, before the man offered her a bag of small white things and said, "Marshmallow?"


	2. Chapter 2

CH 2

Quinn said nothing as the man started a small fire, brought up another chair for her to sit on, and gave her a stick, presumably for sticking the "marshmallows" on and cooking them in the fire. She watched as his caught on fire, and he swore before blowing it out, then put it between two crackers with something brown in between. He was about to bite it when he noticed her staring and he said, "What? Haven't you ever had a s'more before?" Quinn shook her head, and the man stared at her in disbelief. "You really are something else, kid. I mean, wings, never had s'mores… What next? Are you gonna tell me that by day you're a normal girl, but by night you put on a wig and become an international pop star singing sensation?" Quinn raised an eyebrow, and stuck her marshmallow on the stick, letting it sit in the fire for a while.

"It's getting hot in this thing," the man commented, taking off his jacket. Quinn stared as she noticed a glowing, blue circle in the center of his chest. Noticing her staring the man said, "Oh, that's just the arc reactor." She stared at him, waiting for him to continue, but this was apparently common knowledge on Midgard, as he didn't say anything else. "Do you have a name, birdo?" He asked suddenly.

Quinn just shrugged and stared into the fire, scowling when she noticed her marshmallow had fallen off the stick, and was burning in the ashes below, she started to reach in so she could dust it off and make it a "s'more" but the metal man suddenly thrust the s'more he had made into her outstretched hands and said, "Have mine! Pepper says I shouldn't eat these things anyway." Quinn blinked in surprise before realizing her mistake; humans couldn't touch fire, not at least without getting horribly hurt. So she smiled politely at him and took the gooey treat, biting into it with low expectations.

Her eyes widened in wonder as the flavor of the s'more made her senses go wild. She crammed the rest of the treat into her mouth, and hadn't even swallowed before diving her hand into the bag for another marshmallow, ignoring the man laughing at her antics. It took some effort to get the marshmallow the perfect texture without lighting it aflame, but after finally having gone through a whole bag of the confections, she had gotten the timing just right.

"Since I feel like you're not going to answer my questions, as you have not said a single word to me since this afternoon, I'm just going to make you a name. How do you feel about Birdo?" Quinn raised an eyebrow at him, so he tried again.

"Bird Brain?" Head shake. "Flappy?" Gag. "Feathers?" Maybe. Finally, the man sighed and said, "Well the only other one I have is from Greek mythology. Did you ever hear the story about that kid who made himself wax wings and learned to fly, but they melted and he died when he tried to fly to the sun? No? Remind me to show it to you sometime. Anyway, he was called Icarus. It's a boy name, but I think it has a nice ring to it. And I can always call you Iggy for short. What do you think?" Quinn thought for a few moments before nodding, deciding it was a fitting name, though she did hope not to die.

"Sweet! Well, my name's Tony Stark, though if you have access to any source of media at all, you should know that. Do you want to go inside?" Quinn nodded, amused by the man's spirit. She followed him down a staircase into a very bright and what she assumed was fashionable for humans room.

"The living room," he announced grandly and sat down on one of the long fluffy chairs. "Well, Iggy," he motioned around, "cop a squat." Assuming that meant sit down, Quinn did so on the longest of the seats. Stark was pouring himself a drink, and then shouted at someone named, "Jarvis" to get Quinn a "coke" and she jumped when it appeared a few seconds later from a hole in the table. A few minutes later, she was happily sipping down the newest addition to her palate when Stark turned to her and said, "Do you need me to have someone take you home tonight? Or are you just gonna fly?" Quinn laughed humorlessly, and opened her mouth for the first time since meeting the man who wore a suit of metal.

"Neither, if you would please," she answered, "My home is impossible to get to by car, and my wings have been… compromised, one might say." Stark rose his eyebrows skeptically.

"And just where do you live? Atlantis?"

"Atlantis? You speak strange words, good sir. But no, my home is farther away than I would like at the moment. You see my home is…" She trailed off, uncertain she could trust someone she had only know so briefly. But she soon made her decision; she wanted to trust the man who had saved her life, and gave her new wondrous foods. And so she took a deep breath and continued. "My home is a realm called Asgard. It is located in the stars, far away from Earth, and I cannot return without opening the bifrost, or calling upon my good friend Loki, who knows the magic that links the worlds." Stark stared at her for a moment before speaking again.

"Y'know," he snorted, "If I hadn't seen the wings, I don't think I'd be that inclined to believe you. I still can't say I'm sure that I do. But, I'm willing to humor you, so answer me this. If you come from Asgard, what are you doing here on earth?" Quinn, grateful that he had not taken her for mad and thrown her out, answered quickly.

"You see, I am only half Asgardian. Years and years ago, my mother came to Midgard on holiday, and met a businessman whom she took a liking to. They got together for a while, and I was the result. But she left after three months of being away, so I've never met my father. She didn't even know she was with child until after she returned home. A few years ago, my mother was killed while away on a hunting trip for a fire salamander. I was forced to join the battle front, as I have skills no one else possesses that help win wars. Loki looked after me, and helped me get here so I could find my father and meet him. He checks in on me every few hours. In fact, he should be soon."

"Okay, so I'm guessing the power no one else possesses is the wings?"

"And some magic Loki taught me and the shape-shifting."

"Shape-shifting? I don't believe you."

"You don't have to. I simply thought I would share my story as a way of thanking you for all you've done for me." Stark took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Okay, can I see the wings one more time? I just need to make sure this isn't some kind of drunken hallucination or something."

"I can assure you, I am no hallucination."

"That's what you would say if you were. Now come on, I feel like I'm crazy here. Please?" Quinn sighed before slowly unfolding the wings she had been keeping flat against her back, wincing with pain as the wounds were exposed to the air. Stark whistled and moved closer to examine them. He ran his fingers across the feathers once, and then stopped, confused as his fingers came to one of the projectiles lodged in her wings. He took his fingers away, and was about to turn and say something to her when he noticed the blood on his hands.

"Shit!" He cursed and turned to face Quinn, "Why didn't you say anything? Is this what you meant by compromised?"

Quinn shrugged, "The pain was bearable, and I planned to have Loki heal them for me next time he checked on me."

"Still," he said, "You should at least let me take out the bullets. They could become infected or something, and who knows when your friend will show up." Quinn deciding it was best not to argue with him, simply nodded, and followed him into another room, this one with tile floors and a large glass mirror, wooden cabinets, a marble counter top, and two devices on the far side of the wall that Quinn couldn't name. Stark walked over to a drawer and rummaged around in it for a bit before pulling out a bottle of foul smelling liquid, "paper towels" (as she was informed), and a set of metal prongs with pointy ends (AN: tweezers).

Quinn let out a hiss of pain as Stark used the prongs to reach into her wounds, and take out the bullets lodged in the mess of feathers and blood. It took about half an hour to extract them all, with Quinn fidgeting every time a particularly painful nerve was hit, but by the end, she found herself holding eleven shiny, bloody bullets and she stood up, thinking he was done.

"Hey, slow down," Stark pushed her back onto the counter, "I haven't disinfected you yet." Quinn looked at him, confused as he poured some liquid onto a paper towel and raised it to her wounds with a grimace. A cry tore itself out of her throat as the paper towel was pressed into the bloody mess, and wiped around, supposedly cleaning the wound. Tears streamed down her face for the next half hour, at which point she stood, shaking, and said, "I think I much prefer Asgardian healing methods."

Stark shrugged. "Earth's may not be perfect, but they get the job done." He replaced the objects where he had gotten them from and walked out of what Quinn had learned during the hour was called a "bathroom."

"You can use a guestroom tonight," Stark said to her, "Or you can sleep on the couch or something. If you choose a guestroom, just go into the elevator, and press any button above 13 but below 100. I'm going to bed now. Night!" And with that he walked down the hallway and into what Quinn guessed was his bedroom. She waited for a few minutes before climbing up the way she had come down from the roof, and walked over to where the smoldering remains of their cookout lay. She sighed as she lied down, wrapped her wings around her and gazed up at the stars. Stark had said "or something," she reasoned.

Briefly, she wondered which star was Asgard, but knew it was madness to try and find it, so she closed her eyes thinking, _Good night, Loki. Good night, Mother. Sweet dreams. _And with that, she slipped into unconsciousness , now preoccupied by a world of dreams.


End file.
